UIS Challenge Course teaches trust, teamwork

Saturday

Oct 24, 2015 at 10:00 PMOct 24, 2015 at 11:01 PM

The "trust fall" typically comes near the end of the newly opened Challenge Course at University of Illinois Springfield.

Challenges courses, also known as "ropes courses," have been around for decades as teamwork and personal development exercises for groups ranging from athletic teams to corporate human resources departments. The UIS Challenge Course was built on the grounds of Spencer House, a university-owned home on West Lake Shore Drive.

The UIS course is a "low rope," challenge, meaning the network of ropes, cables, platforms, pedestals and beams is low to the ground. A "high rope" course ranges from 25 to 50 feet in the air. While the course would seem to encourage competition, that is not the idea behind the concept, said James Koeppe, director of the UIS Department of Campus Recreation.

"A lot of people think it's like 'Survivor' or some kind of tough physical thing," Koeppe said during a course dedication Wednesday with The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

"Through a series of briefings and discussions afterwards, we relate back to how we to do things as a team or back at the office," Koeppe said. "Ideally, what are you going to do differently tomorrow than you did yesterday?"

Prior to coming to UIS, Koeppe managed a challenge course at Georgetown College near Lexington, Kentucky. Corporate clients at the Kentucky course included Toyota and a local Applebee's franchise. Georgetown had both low rope and high rope courses. The UIS course primarily has been targeted toward athletic, student and university groups, but Koeppe said one point of the chamber ribbon-cutting was to begin marketing the course to businesses and not-for-profits.

Challenge course designers and vendors have their own professional association. The Association for Challenge Course Technology, based in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, has more than 2,500 members, according to the association website, acctinfo.org.

In addition to course builders and designers, members now include representatives from the insurance industry, universities and park districts, campsite personnel, teachers, and attorneys who work in outdoor recreation law.

The association also provides training and certification for course owners and operators.

Whatever the challenge level, the debriefing after a course completion is key, Koeppe said.

"You can't do the course by yourself; you have to work as a team," he said. "It might be, 'How often do you lend a hand at work?' Maybe they didn't ask for help and fell off a wire. Think how much more efficient we can be at work if we ask for help."

Participants typically navigate the course in groups of eight to 15. The UIS course has capacity for up to 150. Sessions usually are three to four hours, though all-day challenges are available. The cost is $8 to $50 per person, depending on the type and length of the challenge.

Duane Willingham, a junior in sociology and anthropology at UIS, is a course facilitator. He helps lead teams through the challenges and afterward directs discussions of team performance. Willingham said he adjusts challenges depending on the group.

"It's all about what you see that the group needs and what they want to work on," he said.

Teams start with less challenging tasks, perhaps as simple as learning names, Willingham said, and work up to harder challenges such as the trust fall. In a variation on an old party game, participants are asked to fall backward from a raised platform into the arms of their team members.

"You wouldn't take them there first thing and put them on the trust fall," Willingham said, "because nobody would fall off backward and trust that you would catch them."

"It's more of a mental thing," said Willingham, who has done both low rope and high rope courses.

UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said she has completed portions of the course.

"Someday we're going to have a high rope course as well as a low rope course," Koch said.

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Low or high

The Challenge Course at University of Illinois Springfield is a "low rope" course, meaning the layout of ropes, cables, beams platforms and pedestals is low the the group. "High rope" courses often are as high as 25 to 50 feet and involve the use of safety harnesses.

Courses range from basic to "extreme challenge" courses.

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Want more information?

The University of Illinois Springfield Challenge Course is available to groups of eight to 150. Larger groups are broken into teams for challenges that last three to four hours or a full day.

Additional information is available from the Department of Campus Recreation at 206-7103, by emailing jswen2@uis.edu or online through the "facilities" link at uis.edu/campusrec.

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